


Melodic Medicine

by lyrebird_splice



Category: Jupiter Ascending (2015)
Genre: JAOCP, Jupiter Ascending OC Project - Freeform, Multi, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-03
Updated: 2015-03-03
Packaged: 2018-03-16 05:35:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3476390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lyrebird_splice/pseuds/lyrebird_splice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the eldest Abrasax's refinery had collapsed and Regenex prices soared, unrest quickly escalates to riots as hospitals are forced to turn patients away, and lower class citizens are denied even the simplest of health care.  Pure Regenex is hoarded by the wealthy, though occasionally it makes its way into the black market for an absurd price...usually what's found and bartered for is a watered-down strain, or worse, tainted.</p>
<p>Aegis is overwhelmed, trying to handle larger political issues and simultaneously protect Jupiter Jones from afar, so they employ militarized units of Sywrens to keep the peace among the general public.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Melodic Medicine

**Author's Note:**

> Was inspired by this post and the prompt of what would happen AFTER the movie - http://fireofspring.tumblr.com/post/112247527553/in-the-aftermath-of-jupiter-ascending
> 
> Check out my first fic, Terror Sounds, for more background on Adara and Sywrens: http://archiveofourown.org/works/3376526

The smoke finally cleared after a day, though the air still stung with burning chemicals. The city had done a remarkable job of sweeping the streets overnight - you'd have no idea the riots had come all the way to the hospital by sunset, nor was there any indication that the windows had been smashed, the supplies looted, patients terrorized as the public swarmed and stolen what they could of the Regenex.

There was no one now. The windows had been replaced before dawn. No litter, no defaced property. It was as if it never happened - but there was no one. The hospital, always buzzing with activity in the front courtyard, was almost entirely quiet, save for a high hum, almost too high to hear.

The Sywrens were taking shifts with High Frequency Crowd Control - two or three at a time donned protective head phones and, from the roof, emitted a series of long whines and pings, so high that most specimens would not be able to identify it save for other splices with exceptional hearing. They weren't loud enough to cause any real damage, just annoying enough that it caused those without headphones to flinch in discomfort and walk away.

Adara felt a tap on her shoulder. She could hear nothing through the headphones, but the other Sywren gestured to their timer and twirled their hand. Time to switch. Adara nodded, grateful for the break, and surrendered her perch to her teammate. She stretched her aching wings and felt a small satisfying pop in each of them; holding them in their curves for so long meant serious cramping. After heading down the metal stairwell to the lift and the heavy doors closed behind her, she lifted the headphones off and exhaled loudly, rubbing the blood back into her ears. The lift droned smoothly down, the rhythmic tink-whoomp, tink-whoomp with each passing floor. Adara leaned against the cool wall and let her lyre feathers brush the floor.

Arriving at the basement level, the door opened and she was assaulted with a wall of sound. Coughing lungs full of fluid, quiet sobs, screaming babies whose parents could no longer afford them the luxury of painless teething. A long, stifled moan through gritted teeth and cloth. Beeping machines. Scalpels being dropped into a metal tray. She regretted not leaving the headphones on as she shrugged her wings closed and moved to where her team waited, in various stages of rest and wakefulness.

"Hano, make sure you drink." Captain Ohma handed her a lukewarm cup filled to the brim with a amber-colored liquid. Sywrens drank the concoction during long missions and tasks to repair and protect their vocal cords. Before the incident, it was always sweetened with a spoonful of sugar crystals laced with Regenex, but now as Adara sipped purposefully, she tasted the sweet but felt none of the tingle. Still, it was a relief. "Your next shift is in three hours. You should rest." Ohma was several years her senior, and acted every bit like it, though never unkindly. She liked his eyes and the way his name felt in her mouth when spoken, like a cool round stone.

A shrill cry from the end of the basement made her flinch, and the Sywrens collectively stirred to look for the source. In the corner, a line of children cowed nervously; they had heard the scream behind a curtain, and now all they understood was that something scary and painful awaited them. They didn't know it was a simple exam, an ear check being the most invasive part. The Sywrens settled back into their group, uninterested, but Adara gulped the rest of her drink and started to walk over.

"Hano!" Ohma stood, a good head taller than her. "Leave them alone, we're not here to play doctor...." his voice dropped low and quiet. "Our orders were to stay out of civilian business."

"Captain, they're kids. They're scared. The staff are completely overwhelmed and besides, it's hardly fraternizing with the enemy." Another scream and Adara turned sharply to the corner, feathers raised like hackles. The children were inconsolable now, practically fighting the staff and their parents to avoid being pulled behind the curtain. Ignoring her superior, she crossed the room and gave a sympathetic smile to the nurse before ducking into the exam space.

The child - a boy probably no more than 3 - was wailing. Adara cringed at the sound, though admittedly she was impressed that such a small creature could have such lung capacity. "You sure this one isn't a Sywren, doctor?" she joked, and he gave her an amused but exhausted grin. She took his small hand (gosh it was so small) and rubbed soothing circles into the back of his wrist with her thumb. Unfurling her wings, she playfully dangled the lyre feathers in his face, causing him to forget his task of screaming and squint at the ticklish feeling.

When he was adequately diverted, Adara rolled her tongue and trilled, cooing in waves of high to low notes. The boy stared, eyes wide and perplexed, before a giggle bubbled out of him. She smiled and pursed her lips, mimicking the sounds of bubbles popping. He squealed with laughter, and outside the curtain the other little ones had stopped their crying, curious as to what could be so delightful inside. The doctor quickly finished the exam and gave a grateful nod to Adara before lifting the boy off the table and calling for the next child.

She spent the next two hours helping the children be at ease during their exams, distracting and calming them with joyful silly sounds, mews and yips and whistles. She certainly found pleasure in the task, more so than the monotonous prison of silence in those awful headphones when on crowd-control duty. And Captain Ohma didn't bother her, except once, stepping into the curtain to give her another cup to drink. He gave her a smirk that she hadn't seen before, and looking up at him through her lashes over the brim of her cup as he walked back to their team, she decided she liked his smirk too.


End file.
